For more than a generation, HRIS has been a useful business tool. Managers and executives have used it and valued its utility. In most cases, that has been a casual assessment, another software application that everyone has come to take for granted.
However, the next generation HRIS products bring something extra to the party – the data and integration that supports strategic planning. The HRIS packages that once provided data and reports for HR management to paraphrase for the executive suite now support Enterprise Resource Reporting, Inventory, Accounting, and other organizational silos.
A new dependence
Executive and senior management finds itself facing new facts. It’s not just an issue of counting heads, running payroll, and crunching some numbers. Talent is harder to find and retain, and that affects quality and productivity immediately and lastingly.
Managers with experience in top performing businesses come to the office with HRIS usage behind them and with higher expectations of its potential tie to their success. They know what it can do, and they see it as a means to leverage human capital and to grow the business.
A new approach
Most HRIS systems have had some level of interactivity. But, in next generation HRIS that interaction has become a strategic tool as it improves employee engagement. There is still the data bank of employee information, including all the detail that personnel clerks have sorted, filed, and archived in the past. But, employee access lets them view, verify, and edit the data.
Their participation relieves HR of routine tasks – employees have taken ownership of the interactivity. It empowers them with fast access to personal information, employee benefits, and training programs.
As they clarify, fix, and expand their data, employees improve the content while reducing inquiries and needs. Self-service increases employee engagement, their sense of belonging, and increases their sense of accountability. It ties remote employees to the corporate culture and gives employees the info they need to pursue new jobs or apply for advancement.
A new HR
HRIS has changed the career potential for HR professionals who can see past its administrative support. They have to step up to increase their technology skills and their ability to manage vendor relationships.
In addition to personnel administrative functions, HRIS offers up an inventory of features:
- Cost per hire
- Benefits as a percent of operating costs
- Employee turnover rates per job and organizational function
- Turnover and replacement costs
- ROI on training and on human capital investment
Historically, the price, accessibility, and sophistication of HRIS software have succeeded somewhat as a function of business size:
- In small organizations, HR personnel risk a struggle for control with their HRIS.
- In growth organizations, HRIS demands more of its HR practitioners. They have more time for risk management, a better opportunity to immerse themselves in finance and operations, and a mandate to process and share the system analytics.
- In successful organizations, the new generation HRIS takes over all the functions that get in the way of Human Resources pursuing its newly valued role in building systems, collaborating across the organization, and helping people grow with and into a culture of success.
Strategic HR moves past using HRIS as a device towards making it a transformational mechanism that drives business development and decisions. It moves past using HRIS for its efficiencies and more for its end-user needs and engagement. It promotes employee engagement, ties them to the operational systems, and makes them strategic partners.